We have created a brief glossary of the most commonly used legal terms that you may see in your trust. 

Alien:  A foreign born person who has not qualified as a citizen of the country; however an alien is a person within the meaning of the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution to the same extent as a citizen.

Amendment:  To change or modify for the better; to alter by modification, deletion, or addition.

Amendment of Trust:  An addition which alters the original terms of a trust, the power to accomplish which may be reserved by the settlor in the original trust instrument.  A trust amendment may be made during the lifetime of the Settlor of the Trust, except that the trust may not be altered during periods of incapacitation.  Trust amendments should always be in writing, signed by the Settlor of the Trust, and where the amendment affects the beneficial interests of any of the Trust’s beneficiary’s then the amendment should also be notarized.

Beneficiary:  A person who has any present or future interest in a trust, either vested or contingent.  Normally the original Settlors of a Trust are the first beneficiaries of a revocable trust.  When the trust is drafted, the Settlors will designate primary beneficiaries who will receive benefits of the trust at some future date, and secondary or contingent beneficiaries who will receive remainder interests if a primary beneficiary predeceases.

Child/Children:  Progeny; offspring of parentage; an unborn or recently born human being.  The term may include or apply to adopted, after-born, or illegitimate children; step children; or children by a second or former marriage; issue.

Community Property:  Property owned in common by spouses, each having an undivided one-half interest by reason of their marital status.  Community property is also generally defined as ‘all earnings by either spouse after marriage’.  Community property is owned half by each spouse.

Decedent:  A deceased person.

Descendant:  Those persons who are related by blood to the ancestor.  The term means those descended from another, persons who proceed from a body of another such as a child or grandchild, to the remotest degree.

Executor:  A person appointed by a testator to carry out the directions and requests in his/her Will, and to dispose of the property according to his testamentary provisions after his decease.  The individual appointed to administer a trust is a trustee, as compared to the individual who is appointed to administer a Will who is referred to as an executor.

Fiduciary:  A person having a duty, created by his/her undertaking, to act primarily for another’s benefit in matters connected with such undertaking.

Guardian:  One who legally has the care and management of the person, or the estate, or both in the case of a child who has not yet reached the age of majority.

Heir:  A person who succeeds, by the rules of law, to an estate in lands, tenements, or upon the death of his/her ancestor, by descent and right of relationship.

Husband:  A married man, one who has a lawful spouse living.

Incapacity:  The quality or state of being incapable, want of capacity, lack of physical or intellectual power, or of natural or legal qualification; inability, incapability, disability, incompetence.  Incapacity is a state where an individual is unable to rationally, prudently, or effectively look after his or her own interests.

Income:  The gain derived from capital, from labor or effort, or both combined, including profit or gain through sale or conversion of capital.

Income Beneficiary:  The party entitled to income from property.  A typical example would be a trust where “A” is to receive the income for life with corpus or principal passing to “B” upon “A’s” death.  In this case, “A” would be the income beneficiary of the trust.

Initial Trustee(s):  Usually the initial trustee is the original Settlor of the trust, and as such will have the authority to control and administer all trust assets.

Issue:  All persons who have descended from a common ancestor.  Offspring; progeny; descent; lineage; lineal descendants.  In this sense, the word includes not only a child or children, but all other descendants in whatever degree, and it is so construed generally in deeds.  But, when used in Wills, it is of course, subject to the rule of construction that the intention of the testator, as ascertained from the language used by him/her; and hence issue may, in such a connection, be restricted to children, or to descendants living at the death of the testator, where such an intention clearly appears.

Living Will:  A Living Will is a short document that basically states: “If the situation should arise in which there is not a reasonable expectation of my recovery from physical or mental disability, I request that I be allowed to die and not be kept alive by artificial means or heroic measures.”

Passive investment:  A passive investment is one where the trustee has no ongoing management responsibilities.  Passive investments include bank accounts, stocks and bonds, and limited partnerships.

Per Stirpes:  By roots or stocks; by representation.  This term, derived from the civil law, is much used in the law of descents and distribution, and denotes that method of dividing an intestate estate where a class or group of distributes take the share which their deceased would have been entitled to, taking thus by their right of representing such ancestor, and not as so many individuals.  It is the antithesis of per capita.

Personal Property:  Generally, all property other than real estate.  In a broad and general sense, everything that is the subject of ownership, not coming under denomination or real estate, such as cash, automobiles, stocks, household furnishings, and clothing, etc.

Pour-over Will:  A Provision in a Will which directs the distribution of property into a trust.  The Pour-over Will is also used for the nomination of guardians for any minor children.

Principal:  Property as opposed to income.  The term is often used to designate the corpus of assets of a trust.  If, for example, ‘A’ places real estate in trust with income payable to ‘B’ for life, and the remainder to ‘C’ upon ‘B’s death, the real estate is the principal or corpus of the trust.

Principle of Representation:  The principle upon which the issue of a deceased person takes or inherits the share of an estate in which their immediate ancestor would have taken or inherited, if living; the taking or inheriting per stirpes.

Quasi-Community Property:  Property acquired while living outside the State of California while married, which would have been Community Property if it had been purchased while the couple was married and living in the State of California.  Quasi-community property is treated just like community property when one spouse dies or if the couple divorces.

Real Property:  Land, and generally whatever is erected or growing upon or affixed to land.  Also rights issuing out of, annexed to, and exercisable within or about land.

Remainderman:  One who is entitled to the remainder of the estate after a particular estate carved out of it has expired.

Revocable:  Susceptible of being revoked, withdrawn, or cancelled.  The entire Revocable Trust can be revoked or cancelled or even amended, as can individual portions of the Trust.

Rule Against Perpetuities:  Principle that no interest in property is good unless it must vest, if at all, not later than 21 years, plus period of gestation, after some life or lives in being at the time of the creation of the interest.  The ‘rule against perpetuities’ prohibits the granting of an estate which will not necessarily vest within a time limited by a life or lives then in being and 21 years thereafter together with the period of gestation necessary to cover case of posthumous birth.  This rule essentially limits the length of time during which the Settlor of the Trust can control his/her other property.

Separate Property:  Property owned by a married person in his or her own right during marriage.  Generally any property which one owns before marriage is separate property after marriage.  Generally, any property which one owns before marriage continues to be separate property after marriage.

Settlor:  The term Settlor refers to the individual who creates the trust.  The Settlor is also known as the ‘Testator’ and the ‘Grantor’.  One who creates a Trust.

Spendthrift Provision:  One which provides a fund for benefit of another other than the settler, secures it against a beneficiary’s own improvidence, and places it beyond his/her creditors’ reach.  A Trust set up to protect a beneficiary from spending all of the money that he/she is entitled to.

Successor Trustee:  Upon the death or incapacity of the original trustee of a trust, new trustees, which are designated in the trust, will begin to administer the trust assets for the benefit of the beneficiaries.  These new trustees are called ‘Successor Trustees.’

Surviving Settlor:  When a married couple creates a trust together, after the death of the first spouse, the surviving spouse is known and identified as the surviving Settlor.

Testator:  One who makes or has made a testament or a Will.

Testatrix:  A woman who makes a Will or a testament.

Trust:  A right of property, real or personal, held by one party for the benefit of another.  Any arrangement whereby property is transferred with the intention that it be administered by the trustee for another’s benefit.

Intervivos Trust:  A trust created by an instrument which becomes operative during the Settlor’s lifetime as contrasted with a “testamentary trust” which takes effect upon the death of the settlor after passing through probate.

Irrevocable Trust:  A trust which may not be revoked after its creation as in the case of a deposit of money by one in the name of another as trustee for the benefit of a third person (beneficiary).

Revocable Trust:  A trust in which the settlor reserves the right to revoke.

Trustee:  The person holding property in trust.  The person appointed, or required by law, to execute the trust; one in whom an estate, interest, or power is vested, under an express or implied agreement to administer or exercise it for the benefit or to the use of another called the beneficiary.

Trustor:  One who creates a Trust; also called a Creator, Settlor, Grantor, and Testator.

Wife:  A married woman, one who has a lawful spouse living.

Will:  The legal expression or declaration of a person’s mind or wishes as to the disposition of his/her property, to be performed or take effect after his/her death.  Most valid Wills are either statutory witnessed Wills, or handwritten holographic Wills.  With a Pour-over Will, the primary beneficiary of the Will is the testator’s trust.

Hornstein Law Office serves the following counties:

Los Angeles County, Ventura County, Orange County, Riverside County, San Bernardino County, Kern County, Madera County, Marin County, Mono County, Fresno County, San Diego County, Sacramento County, Imperial County, Santa Barbara County, Alameda County, Sonoma County and Santa Clara County.

Hornstein Law Office serves the following cities and towns in the Los Angeles Area:

Agoura, Altadena, Anaheim, Bel Air, Bell Canyon, Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Burbank, Calabasas, Canoga Park, Century City, Chatsworth, Claremont, Covina, Culver City, Diamond Bar, Encino, Glendale, Granada Hills, Hermosa Beach, Hidden Hills, Hollywood, Huntington Beach, Inglewood, Irvine, La Brea, Laguna Beach, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Malibu, Manhattan Beach, Mar Vista, Marina Del Rey, Mission Hills, Newport Beach, North Hills, North Hollywood, Northridge, Pacific Palisades, Panorama City, Pasadena, Porter Ranch, Redondo Beach, Reseda, San Diego, San Fernando, San Pedro, Santa Barbara, Santa Clarita, Santa Monica, Sepulveda, Sherman Oaks, Silver Lake, Simi Valley, South Pasadena, Studio City, Sun Valley, Sunland, Sylmar, Tarzana, Temecula, Thousand Oaks, Topanga Canyon, Universal City, Valencia, Van Nuys, Ventura, West Covina, West Hills, West Hollywood, West Los Angeles, Westwood, Winnetka, Woodland Hills.

Hornstein Law Office serves the following cities and towns in the San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange County areas:

Apple Valley, Bakersfield, Barstow, Brea, Chino, Chino Hills, Diamond Bar, East San Bernardino, Fontana, Fullerton, Glendora, Huntington Beach, Monrovia, Montclair, Ontario, Pomona, Rancho, San Dimas, Upland, Upland, Upland, Verne, Victorville.

Hornstein Law Office serves the following cities and towns in Northern California.

Alameda, Auburn, Eldorado, Eldorado Hills, Elk Grove, Folsom, Lodi, Petaluma, Placerville, Rio Vista, Rocklin, Sacramento, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Stockton and West Sacramento.